A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of High Roding from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"ROOTHING (High), a parish, with a village, in Dunmow district, Essex; on the river Roding, 3¾ miles S S W of Great Dunmow, and 8 E N E of Sawbridgeworth [railway] station. Post-town, Dunmow, under Chelmsford. Acres: 1,803. Real property: £2,823. Population: 469. Houses: 110. The property is subdivided. The manor was given, in the time of the Confessor, to a monastery in the Isle of Ely. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value: £391. Patron: the Earl of Roden. The church was recently restored. There is a parochial school."

High Roding is one of The Rodings (or Roothings) - a group of villages in Essex, England, the largest group in the country to bear a common name. They are believed to be the remnants of a single Anglo-Saxon community known as the Hroðingas, led by Hroða, who sailed up the River Thames and along a tributary in the sixth century and settled in the area. This was one of the sub-kingdoms that were absorbed into the Kingdom of Essex. The River Roding and the villages derived their name from Hroda. The typical pronunciation of the name is "Roadings". The Rodings formed a single land unit that was investigated by Stephen Basset.

Research Tips

The Recorders of Ucclesford History provides a series of webpages on most of the parishes in Ucclesford District. They also host transcriptions from various parishes provided by local family history societies.